THE FENCE II: THE FINISHING

Oh, this fence of ours. Cedar! 8 feet tall with a special permit! Stained! Lovely! Hundreds of hours of work and sweat! Aaaaand totally unusable gates. Hanging doors, malfunctioning hinges, an uneven side section that becomes a mire of mud and sadness and makes taking the garbage out something of a quest instead of a fifteen second routine. Did I mention our 170 lb. St. Bernard/Mastiff mix who thinks that if he can lean against a gate until it swivels open (and by swivels open, I mean off of the top hinges), then it must be a special toy designed for his amusement? The funny thing is that it LOOKS all right, sort of, because I periodically shuffle some sand on the mud-pit-of-despair, and we have these rubber mat things that float (all over the place) on the sand, and it really is a lovely color. To paraphrase my favorite 90s character, my fence is a total Monet; it looks all right from far away, but up close, it's a total mess. So this is my 2013 DIY goal: we need to take down the two gates, level the ground and pour a concrete pad, and then rebuild the gates.